Sports
Nigeria’s Top Badminton Players Happy With Achievements
Nigeria’s top-seeded badminton player, Dorcas Adesokan has expressed delight that she was able to reach the podium at the just-concluded 4th Lagos International Badminton Classics.
The competition which served off on July 18 at the Teslim Balogun Stadium, Surulere, ended on July 21 with India topping the medals table with three gold and three silver medals.
Misha Zilberman of Israel crushed Ramdam Misburn of Maylasia, 10-21, 21-19, 21-12 in a hard-fought game to emerge the men’s singles champion.
Ksenia Polikaprova beat Sree Krishina Priya, 20-22, 21-16 and 27-25 in a thrilling encounter to claim the women’s singles title.
The duo of India Manu Attri and Sumeeth Reddy defeated their compatriots, Vaibhaav T.and Prakash Rajs, 21-12, 21-12 to claim the men’s doubles gold medal.
Similarly, Riya Mookerjee and Kuhoo Garg beat fellow Indians, Harka V. and Karishima W., 21-12, 21-12 to emerge the women’s doubles champions.
It was also an all-Indian mixed doubles final as the duo of Manu Attri and Manessha K. defeated Roman Kapoor and Kuhoo Garg, 21-11, 22-20 to claim the available gold medal.
Nigeria’s Adesokan, playing one of her toughest games so far, reached the podium by finishing in the third position in the women’s singles.
She told newsmen after receiving her first-ever championship medal that she can only get better as she worked her socks off to reach the podium.
“I am happy about my achievement. I can only get better, with a longer period in training and better preparations, I know I will be aiming for the gold in coming editions.
“I met a lot of top players from India, Indonesia and some European nations and was able to stand my ground to progress ahead of them.
“With more championships coming up, the future is very bright for us in Nigeria and all we have to do is to just continue to work very hard.
“This is what other players coming from other countries do; there is no magic but hard work, and with better preparations, we will get to dominate the scene soon,’’ Adesokan said.
Anuoluwapo Opeyori, who made it to the men’s singles quarterfinals, also said that it was a great result for him, going by the quality of foreign players at the championships.
“There were 22 countries in the competition and majority were top players, looking to gather some points to help their world rankings. This made the championship highly competitive.
“I got to the quarterfinals and sincerely, I feel good about it, I have seen areas I need to work on, I feel I am getting closer to winning a medal someday soon.
“With longer periods of training and good preparations, I believe I can achieve that,’’ Opeyori said.
The President, Badminton Federation of Nigeria (BFN), Mr Francis Orbih, told newsmen that the future is bright for badminton in Nigeria, with more corporate sponsors turning in their support.
He also expressed gratitude to the Lagos State Sports Council for the financial and moral support it has given to badminton in Nigeria.
“It was a successful competition and we are looking ahead for better championship finals where Nigerians would be winning the top prizes.
“We will return to the drawing board and see how to get the players to that level which has to come with good training and more national competitions.
“It has also been a successful event, looking at the number of participants from foreign countries and we expect it to get even bigger next year because it is an Olympic year.
“We thank everybody who has made this year’s event a wonderful one and we are confident of hosting much bigger ones subsequently,’’ Orbih said.
England captain Harry Kane netted a hat-trick to guide Bayern Munich to an impressive victory against Stuttgart.
Kane’s goals, plus one from Kingsley Coman, helped Bayern end a three-game winless run in all competitions.
They faced a tough task against a Stuttgart side who sat back and limited their chances, leading Vincent Kompany’s side to enter the break frustrated and with the deadlock unbroken.
Bayern eventually found a way past Stuttgart’s steely defence when Kane drilled a low effort into the bottom corner from around 30 yards out after Joshua Kimmich overturned possession.
Former Nigeria goalkeeper, Dosu Joseph, is full of thanks to God after he miraculously survived another life-threatening automobile accident recent at Kara, along the Lagos-Ibadan Express Way, where a heavy-duty truck ran into his SUV.
Narrating his ordeal, the 51-year-old, who guided Nigeria to gold in the Men’s Football Tournament of the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, broke the news in a statement on his social media handles on Friday.
“To God be the glory, another death escaped by Grace and Mercy of God. Me and my friend SM were at Enyo Filling Station after Ojodu Berger bus stop to get fuel on Wednesday, October 2, 2024, around 6 p.m. when this MACK truck fully loaded with iron, with registration number LND 470 XX, left the road and crushed my car beyond repairs. Thank God for life,” he stated.
This is the second time the soft-spoken club proprietor will cheat death by a whisker, having been involved in an accident in 1997 that ended his career at 23 and left his spinal cord in bad shape.
He helped Julius Berger win the Nigeria FA Cup in November 1997 shortly a memorable Olympic outing by keeping a clean sheet in the finals against Katsina United. The following year, he was involved in the auto along Ikorodu Road, Lagos, which not only cut his career short but also left him almost paralysed, ending his spell at Serie A club Reggiana.
The former Nigeria international, who also kept goal for Julius Berger FC, said the case has been reported to Isheri Police Station, Ogun State, where the driver is currently detained and the truck also seized.
According to him, the owner of the truck said he can’t fix the badly damaged SUV until after a year.
Ex – Super Eagles of Nigeria, Okwuchukwu Waobikeze has observed that sports development in Nigeria is going down.
According to him, grassroots sports is very important, without it, the administrators cannot get it right. So everybody should key into grassroots sports development, he said.
Waobikeze said this last Wednesday in an interview with sports journalists shortly after the Port Harcourt All Stars Independence football festival (OCTOBERFEST) at the Port Harcourt club, Rivers State.
He explained that for sports administrators to get it right, grassroots development is key. “They should be organising competition at the grassroots level to fish out the young ones for different sporting activities.
“Grassroots sports is very important so the administrators have to go back to the grassroots.
” Sports Development in Nigeria is going down we need to go back to the basics.
“Look at the just concluded Paris Olympics, Nigeria did not win any medal.
” Our football team did not even qualify for the Olympics. We are going down.
” If they should go back to the grassroots, they will get young ones in the games and talents will be developed.
” I started from school games, to youth games before playing for the national team. Now everybody wants to fly board to play professional football and a lot do not know the basics of the game.
” A lot of people did not know the little things about the game, they just want to play. It is not done so,” Waobikeze stated.
Kiadum Edookor